Review of Django (1966) by Joseph S — 03 Feb 2010

Takashi Miike was having fun making his film into a post-modern game of influences and associations, but Corbucci just set out to make a great, brutal western, that was probably more influential than Leonne's films in establishing the mechanics of the Spaghetti Western.

In many ways it's an anti-Leonne type of film, predicting, preceeding, and capitalizing on the promise of the "The Wild Bunch", to create a western landscape of utter chaos, where voilence can reer up at any moment, this film is more concerned with action than suspense.

And as an action film it succeeds. Stylized more as a gothic horror film, with it's dreary sets, and surreal red hooded Americans(recalling the Klan), and it's hero who drags a coffin wherever he goes, than Leone's suspense filled desert operas, "Django" has true flair and energy that so many westerns(at least to me) miss out on.

Perhaps it's because Corbucci hated westerns, where Leone just hated what they stood for(John Wayne, patriotism, etc.) that he was more willing to experiment with location, creating a town of mud, rather than the usual dry sands, and a hero who takes a worse beating than anything Eastwood had to endure as the man with no name.

I recently watched a doc on the Spaghetti West, so perhaps what's impressive about the genre is still fresh in my head. But I really enjoyed this, great action, never a dull minute. More later...